Large Brewery Tents Transform Oktoberfest

Beginning in 1895, Munich’s large breweries started erecting temporary beer halls at Oktoberfest with room for approximately 1,500 guests. These structures began replacing the smaller wooden stalls and drinking booths that had previously characterized beer service on the Theresienwiese. In 1896, Michael Schottenhamel replaced his earlier tent with a tile-roofed hall seating 1,500 people. The transformation accelerated in 1898 when festival host Georg Lang opened his enormous First Bavarian Giant Hall. Lang combined large-scale communal seating with a thirty-piece band and distributed songbooks that encouraged guests to sing together. The new brewery halls turned beer drinking, music, food, and mass participation into the center of Oktoberfest and established the model for the festival’s modern beer tents.